Today was pretty similar to most of my Monday's. I worked and then went to my Ultimate Frisbee game. We lost. I had a decent stop on defense and a pretty awesome hammer throw for a point. I'm trying to pull the good out of the game. Really what it came down to, though, was that we were over matched physically. But that's not the point of today's post.
This morning, I challenged you to create a goal for a week to see what you learn about the goal and yourself. What I didn't think about until this afternoon is that some of you may not know how to write a goal. Now, I'm gonna teach you how and use my goals as an example.
The first thing you need to do is identify an area of change. For me, I had a few areas of my life I wanted to change. I identified that I wanted to lose weight, drink less, exercise more, and drink more water. Perfect. Step one finished.
Step two is to objectify the goal. I could have said, I want to lose weight and accomplished that goal by dropping a pound. But is losing one pound over 90 days really a change? Would I have learned anything? No, absolutely not. I also wouldn't have been able to drink one less beer a month, worked out once more a year, or had one extra glass of water for the decade and accomplished anything at all. I had to objectify these goals. And so do you.
Think about your goal, figure out what's realistic yet challenging, and give it a number. For me, I wanted to drink more water. That was easy. They recommend 8 glasses a day. I figured a glass of water is 8oz. I multiplied 8 by 8 and got 64. There are 34oz in a liter, multiplied by two and I'm at 68, over the recommended amount. Goal written.
I wanted to work out more. I had weeks here and there where I would work out five times in a week, but not consistently. I wanted to lose weight, so I would need to work out on a regular basis. Getting two in a week was easy, having only two days off would be difficult, but realistic. So far I've only missed it once and it was on purpose so I didn't burn out before a big bike ride.
Here's step three. I'll use my most complicated to objectify goal, alcohol. Make your goal cheat proof. I needed to allow myself to enjoy alcohol in a controlled and safe way. I figured a beer or two during the week wasn't too out of the ordinary for most people in this country, so I allowed myself to have some. Initially I thought that I would let myself have up to four drinks on a week day and six on a weekend. Then I though, well, what is a weekend day and what is a week day? I work on Friday, but not Saturday or Sunday. However, Friday nights are better to drink than Sunday nights. I'd need less restraint on a Friday than a Sunday, so I thought, lets make Friday a weekend and not Sunday. Next, I thought that if I set my week day goal to be a maximum of four drinks, I could drink one drink on four of the five days. That doesn't change anything!
I had to force myself to commit to having at least 3 days off a week. That meant I could do four drinks in two days. But, could I really allow myself to drink four drinks in one day? No, that's getting drunk. I made myself set the goal to a maximum of two drinks in one day and I can only have two days during the week days that I could consume alcohol. The weekends were easier. If I want to drink both Friday and Saturday, I can, or I can choose one and have up to 6. That allows me to realistically enjoy myself depending on who I'm hanging out with and what I'm doing.
The best thing about the alcohol goal and what I've allowed myself... I don't even use it half the time. Two weekends ago I had one drink all weekend. I didn't even want more than that.
These goals have changed my life. I want to inspire others to set goals for themselves and change their lives.
Take my challenge. Set a goal. I'm asking for one week. If you can give me one week, you might change something significant in your life. If you want to give me more than one week, that's wonderful! Please share with me your objectified goals. If you need help, hit me up with an e-mail or facebook message. I hope this helps!
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